Blue Jays unravel against Royals as wild-card push suffers setback

TORONTO — The videoboard above centre field at Rogers Centre sat frozen as the sixth inning unravelled on Simeon Woods Richardson and the Toronto Blue Jays , stuck at one on, one out and a 4-0 scoreline as the Kansas City Royals kept piling up the runs.

Not until Vinnie Pasquantino’s two-run drive capped a six-run outburst did the screen finally move, an updated linescore below a generic backdrop flashing the ugly 10-0 count amid heavy boos from a crowd of 42,261.

More boos loomed in the bottom half of the inning, this time for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. after a groundout to second by the struggling slugger, and while George Springer’s two-run homer brought a brief respite of joy, it did little to mask the misery of a trying 13-2 setback.

Spencer Arrighetti, making his second start since returning from the injured list, allowed two runs in each of the first two innings before rallying with two clean frames. Woods Richardson, needing to both keep the game close and cover innings, did neither, pressing newly signed Michael Lorenzen into two innings of mop-up duty, and Myles Straw into his fourth appearance of the season in the ninth.

Combined with Noah Cameron killing the offence softly like Mark Buehrle would back in the day, it all added up to a second straight series loss for the Blue Jays (65-70), who also dropped to 3.5 games back of the idle Cleveland Guardians (68-66) for the American League’s third wild-card spot.

Regardless, the Blue Jays have no time to lick their wounds, as two crucial series loom, the first beginning Friday against the Seattle Mariners (64-70), their opponent in last fall’s epic American League Championship Series enduring a similarly stilted follow up.

Dylan Cease, Jose Soriano and Max Scherzer are lined up to start there and how they fare will help determine the way they roll out for a three-game set at Cleveland that begins next Tuesday. The club’s hope is to throw both Cease and Soriano against the Guardians, using Monday’s off-day to keep them on regular rest, but they’ll need to avoid extending both this weekend to pull that off.

However that plays out, they still must decide how to approach Tuesday’s series opener, which currently lines up with the vacancy created by Shane Bieber’s trip to the IL.